D Whynn Designs

FINALLY - Two New Patterns & A Giveaway

I'm actually too embarrassed to admit to how long these patterns have been in the works. They have always been at the top of the list but it seems like for the past several months something else has come along that has been even higher on the Get It Done list.

First off the press is the Take the Steps Table Runner pattern. I designed this over the summer right after my local quilt shop got in all these fun summery batiks. Not the Christmas ones on the pattern cover, but the fruit ones shown below.

This would be a great project for a beginner or a quick and easy project for an experienced quilter.

This project takes 6 fat quarters and some yardage for the borders, backing and binding.

I have some Figgy Pudding Christmas fabric buried in my stash that I *hope* to have on my table this holiday season.

Next pattern is the Lella Bag, named after my daughter whose name is not Lella.

I designed this bag way back in June and even blogged about it at that time.  In fact, I'm still carrying that gray one on the cover of the pattern even though it surely is time for a new bag for myself.

The pattern contains full size pattern pieces and full color photos and diagrams.

My daughter finally just got her Lella Bag a couple of weeks ago. Her argument "how could the bag even be named after her if she DOESN'T EVEN HAVE ONE".  She won hands down and I let her have the pick of all that Amy Butler Love fabric.

I wanted this one out of the Simple Abundance fabric.  Love that fabric.

 

But I gave this bag away to a charity event at the local elementary school.

The patterns are available in my Etsy shop.

About that GiveAway. Since I'm still doing the Happy Dance about crossing these two big items off my list, I thought I'd share my joy by giving away TWO sets of the new patterns.

Easy enough to win -- leave a comment telling me about your holiday project list and if most of the items on your list  are for gift giving or for holiday decorating for yourself. I'll pick two winners on Monday, November 16, 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Two more patterns on my To Do list. Goal set to have them written and out the door in 2009.

Next up is the Kid's Drawing Bag that I blogged about way back here.  Shouldn't be too hard since it's already in a rough draft state.

No Doubt About It, It's A Small World

I'm not going to write a post about the subject of Copyright. There are many excellent articles and blog posts out there on this topic.

What I am going to write about is using my patterns to make products to sell for your personal and financial gain.

To me, the design process is a very personal one. It starts with an idea in my head, my idea; a vision, my vision; then a sketch, then figuring out if it's possible to make it work, not only for me but for others.  Prototypes, numerous ones that hit the trash.  Yes, that's fabric, batting, threads and time in the trash because it's just not quite right.  Often many times.

When it is finally "right", more samples are made, photographed each step of the way. There's downloading and Photoshopping and then hours of writing, reviewing, critiquing and rewriting.  Finally the printing, the folding, the bagging - the paper, the cardstock, the ink and once again, the time.

Most designers state right on the pattern how you can use their designs.  Mine states "For Personal Use Only" and then "Questions? Comments? Email me". And then right there on the pattern is a working email address.

I purposely left my usage statement pretty broad based - because I'm willing to talk. Tell me how you want to use it, where you want to sell it - I'm willing to listen.

So my advice to you is if you like a designer's pattern, and believe it would provide business opportunities for you, ASK the designer first.

Because that very same internet that provides exposure for you to sell your handmade goods made from my design is the very same internet that I'm surfing on at Oh Dark Thirty in The Morning on what is already panning out to be a not such a great day. And when I come across MY designs without giving credit where credit is due and without permission, then I find it does nothing for my not such a great mood anyhow.

You wouldn't come to my house and take one of my kids and claim them as yours, so please don't claim my designs as yours.

Ask. Email me. We can chat.

Practically as Exciting as Winning the Lottery

Well, probably not the Lottery, but still pretty exciting.

Yesterday, mixed amongst the bills and junk mail was this:

Yep, a package for me.  Now you have to admit that is pretty exciting.  Double exciting since it was my "Back to School" week and I had been whining and triple exciting because I knew what was in it.

My very own Notetaker designed by Candy of Candied Fabrics.

I came across Candy's blog a few months back during one of those evenings of blog hopping.  Candy is a very talented quilt artist. She makes art quilts, 3-dimensional works of art, bags, journals AND she dyes all her own fabric.  She has an exceptional way of blending colors and design to make a truly beautiful work of art.

A while back Candy made a large quantity of Notetakers containing Eco-friendly notebooks for a trunk show.  Turns out she had a few left, listed them in her Etsy shop and I was lucky enough to snag one  before they are gone.

I haven't sketched in mine yet.  It's kind of like getting new fabric -- I have to look at it for a while before I can bring myself to cutting it to it!  It's the perfect size to fit in my bag and take it where ever I go for those moments of inspiration!

If you are looking for a gift for someone or a gift for yourself, think about one of these!

Oh, and not only does Candy dye all her own fabric (that still blows me away), she also goes camping -- in a tent ---- in the wild --- without any potties -- did I mention it was in a tent? -- for 8 days.  I'm in awe. 

Someday I may like to try dying some fabric, but the tent camping -- in the wild -- I'll leave that to Candy.

Tutorial: Gathering Multiple Layers

A while back, when Ebay was a kinder and gentler place, I used to design and sell doll clothes for adult collector dolls like Himstedt, Sissel Skille, Gotz, Tanner, Creedy. All of the outfits were one of a kind and many hours went into the creation of each.  One of the things that buyers loved were full skirts and layer upon layer of fabrics  I would often gather skirts the width of the fabric - 42" to an 8" waistband.  Needless to say, creating even and straight gathers became quite a challenge.

My favorite method for creating perfect gathers is to use a Gathering Foot on your sewing machine. A gathering foot can be a bit tricky to figure out to start but once you get the hang of it you can create beautiful gathers.  However, it can be even trickier using a gathering foot on multiple layers of fabric.

Since that time I replaced my sewing machine with a Bernina. Bernina only uses Bernina feet. Bernina probably makes a gathering foot but I never looked into it as I don't create gathered garments much anymore and Bernina feet can be on the pricey side.

So when it was time to gather the waistband for the apron I recently made I thought I would share with you the method I use for gathering multiple layers of fabric to one waistband.  There are several methods; this is just the way I like to do it.  (I did not invent this method but I don't really know where I learned it from.)

Place your fabric layers together. Take care to line them up evenly. (They are not lined up in the photo so that you can see there are multiple layers.

You are now going to zig zag stitch over a piece of cord. In the photo I am using a piece of DK weight cotton yarn. (I don't recommend wool as the wool yarn hairs may get caught in your zigzag stitch.) When I gathered often I had a ball of crochet cotton and used that.  It was just the right weight.

Set your machine for a wide zig zag stitch.  Leaving a long end hanging, place the cord in the center of your foot and zig zag over the cord.  Take care not to catch the cord in the zig zag stitch. 

I stitch in the upper 1/2" of the waist edge.  Normal clothing construction uses a 1/2" to 5/8" seam allowance. By stitching in the top 1/2" you shouldn't have to take out the zig zag stitching as it will be in the seam allowance.

Photo of cord zigzagged at upper waist.

Find the center point of your skirt (ungathered) and the center point of your waistband. With right sides together, pin together at the center point.

 

Pull one end of the cord to begin gathering one half of your skirt to your waistband.  (If this was a full waistband, not a half apron, I would mark it again at the 1/4 mark.)  By gathering halfway (or by quarters) and then gathering the other half, you will have even gathers all the way around your skirt.

The skirt will slide easily along your cord and you can evenly space the gathers.

When you are satisfied that one half of your skirt is gathered evenly to the waistband, place a pin at the end of the skirt and wrap your cord around your pin to "lock" your gathers in place. Repeat for the other half of the skirt by pulling the cord on the other side.  When everything looks evenly gathered, pin in place.

Change your sewing machine to a straight stitch and sew your waistband to your skirt using the seam allowance required by your pattern.

Remove all your pins and pull the cord.  It should pull right out.  You now have a neatly gathered skirt.

(Note: In the photo above you will see areas where there are no gathers. This was where the casing was on the front of the apron and I did not want that area gathered.  By using this zig zag/cord method I had full control over the way my gathers lay.)

This method works when gathering a single layer as well. I like to use it for multiple layers as it allows the fabric to gather evenly together and the skirt(s) to lay nicely.

Let me know if this is something you will use. I'd love to hear from you.

Apron Dilemma Resolved

Some of you may remember my post from a few posts ago whining about my apron situation.  In one of those middle of the night flashes of creative genius, I got the idea to do a Design Your Own Apron, as my submission to the apron contest at my quilt store.

I created a worksheet where you can plug in your measurements and from there you will be able to cut out your apron to your size.  I'm calling the apron itself "It's A Party". 

I used Glace by 3 Sisters for Moda and to me it said "fancy, party type apron."  My project needed a potholder, too, because the fabric is a pleasure to sew with.  I'll probably need to make a table runner as well because I do have plenty of fabric and like I said it's a pleasure to sew with.

The model - well, she doesn't really cook, so will never have need for an apron. But when you're family it is always in your best interest to do what mom says and if that is please put this apron on and model it for me in the kitchen where you really never cook because mixing couscous and water in a pot with a lid and turning the stove on High does not count as cooking.

 

 

I am happy to be able to cross that project off my list!

And now I think I just might have to go wake the model up and see if I can bribe talk her into driving out to Target to get the Coraline DVD that was released today. I never saw it and am looking forward to it.

Not A Happy Camper

At all.  A while back, quite a while back, I purchased this apron book, A is for Aprons.

It was full of so many pretty aprons and lots of patterns. While I don't wear aprons myself (and I should because I ruin plenty of clothes), my sister has patiently requested an apron, my mother loves them, they make great gifts and there are a zillion beautiful fabrics out there (and in my stash) that would make great aprons.

Once I had my book home, I leafed through it, picked out all the pretty aprons, read some of the history on aprons, picked out the ones that I thought I would try, thought about what fabrics to use and then and only then did I flip to the back of the book to check out the patterns -- only to find that every single pattern must be enlarged by 400%.

I cannot tell you how much this annoys me.  When I come home with a pattern I want to start making it, not find out I need to make an additional trip out and pay to have copies made.  And at 400% enlargement that wasn't the "stick a dime in it copier at the local library." Cut and paste to 400% is way more tedious than I'm up for.

I understand that it is a cost factor.  This bag pattern of mine contains full size pattern pieces. It is rather costly for me to reproduce those pattern pieces and it takes much longer to fold and package.  The sweet gentleman at my copy place is always trying to talk me into running a reduced copy that others can enlarge. He always tells me how much I'll save, how much easier and I always tell him the same thing -- "No. It annoys me and if it annoys me I'm sure it annoys others.  People should be able to use a pattern as soon as they purchase it."  His reply is always the same, "Okay, honey, but I have a machine . . . . ."

Sooooooo, fast forward to the present day. We were brainstorming ideas over at my local quilt shop and we decided to have an apron contest. An in-house contest for those of us at the shop and the customers could vote for the winner.  What fun! A little friendly competition and show off fabrics in some aprons. In fact, the winner will teach the class. The shop owners pulls out some patterns and the above-mentioned apron book. I choose one from the book - knowing that I'm going to have to have the pattern enlarged but what the heck.

I chose Mango Tango on page 72 which calls for 1 yard of fabric and 9, like NINE, yards of double-fold bias. Like I was going to sew on 9 yards of bias - in this lifetime! But no problem, I'm going to line it, even make it reversible. I'll be the contest winner for sure.

This morning I'm writing down what I want copied and decide to copy Twirl, Girl! too. Cute apron and remember I have that sister STILL patiently awaiting an apron. But when I go to look at the Twirl Girl pattern there is none.  Not on the page they said, not on the next page, not on any pattern page in my book.

Great, thinks I. I better look for a pattern errata. I knit and anyone who knits knows to first check the web for an errata for any pattern you have chosen.

Well, come to find out -- you guys probably already knew this and I'm just late to the party -- there is a huge errata for this book on the publisher's web page here. Better yet, there are many problems with the instructions and the pattern pieces and the workaround is to enlarge them at different percentages.  So the page I need to enlarge with 4 pattern pieces has one at 400%, one at 407% etc. Okay fine. I'll just enlarge one page to 400% and tweak what I need to while I'm cutting and sewing.  I can figure this out and remember - I'm gonig to be the contest winner.

So I head on out, over the causeway, trying to beat the thunderstorms straight to my old buddy friend's copy store.  What do you need Sweetie?  I show them -- Hmmmm, they say. Let me give you a price first.  We might have to scan that in before we can copy it.  calculate, calculate, measure, calculate.  Okay, Honey, we can do it for $12 a page to scan it and $10 a page for the copy.  TWENTY-TWO dollars for one lousy apron pattern and better yet I was going to enlarge FOUR!!! Do the math.  And they have mistakes in them anyhow.  Ha ha ha

So how can I be the contest winner when I wanted to deliver my arpon to the store by Saturday and now I don't even have a pattern.  Yes, apron patterns aren't hard and I could write one but I'm already working on several other pattern projects and quite frankly, they are already many many nice patterns out there.  To display something in the store, it really needs to be made with an available pattern.

Sigh, sigh, whine.  I feel bad too, because it's really a very nice book with a lot of pretty aprons.

So now, right now,  I need to come up with a solution to my contest apron or take a nap . . . . .

What's In A Name?

A lot.  And  I need one.

In my last post I showed these kid marker/drawing/carry bags that I had been working on.

 

All during the design and creating process I kept referring to these as Doodle Bags (because the word "doodle" was on the front of the drawing tablet).  If you Google Doodle Bag there are about 7,000 hits for it so that's out.

My sister, the Queen of all that is words, reading and letters, the sister who considers Scrabble and Banagrams a contact sport, was just visiting and I asked her to think up a name for me. But she was too busy doing all the other things she did on her trip and left me with my nameless bags.

So now I'm asking for your help.  Help me think up a name for these bags.  The pattern is almost written except for that top part where the title goes which currently says Stick A Name Here.

Please leave me a name idea and if it's the chosen one I'll send you some kind of Name Thinking prize in return.  I don't know what -- pattern, fabric, notions, bag hardware, something.  We can chat and you can give me some ideas.

Oh, and Banagrams - great game. But if you are playing with my siste, just let her win like I do.  It's safer that way.

For The Younger Set

During the school year I teach preschool, VPK level, which means that I spend a portion of my day, everyday, hanging out with the 4- to 5-year-old crowd.

A while back I got the idea to create a bag - a drawing bag that held markers and a pad and that was just the right size for a kid to carry themselves. Something where their stuff wasn't falling out as they were walking. Something that would occupy them at restaurants, car rides, airplane trips, doctor waiting room sits.

So we have this:

 

And these:

 

That open up to this:

 

Or these:

 

But wait - that's not all!  I don't know a kid yet that isn't always carrying around some kind of "treasure" - a sparkley rock, some seashells, a cool leaf, Bakugons, Spiderman -- and so each drawing bag comes with a detachable drawstring Treasure Bag inside the bag:

 

Little treasure bags detached:

 

These bags went through numerous revisions to get to the final product. The first one I made the marker holder would not lay flat and caused the whole bag to bunch up.  I understood the engineering concept of why this was happening but I could not figure out how to fix it.  I figured out work-arounds, a pencil roll in the bag, a pocket for the markers, etc., etc, but that was not my "vision" and I wasn't going to be satisfied until it was exactly what I had in mind.

The seam ripper and I were inseperable.  I can't even begin to tell you how many samples hit the trash. At one point the whole project was tabled and it was weeks before I pulled it out again.  And then one night - one of those middle of the night "that's it!" thoughts. And there you have it.  It worked!

All bags have adjustable straps - tied for the girls and hardware for the boys.

This has been kid tested and kid sized and kid approved.  Obviously the photos would be better being shown off by a kid but I don't have a kid with me at the moment.  I would suggest these bags for the 3 to 8 year old set - using more mature fabrics for the older kid.

These will be available as completed (and filled - markers, pads) bags in my shop as well as a pattern.  Should be through the final revisions and ready to go in about a week.

Thanks for looking!

Sewing Talent

Recently a friend sent me a photo of an insulated lunch bag she made using this pattern here:

 

And some wristlets she made using this pattern here:

 

 

I think she did a beautiful job on all of them. Love her fabric choices.

My friend used to live here way back when our girls were little. We were sewing fools -- making all of our girl's clothing, swapping patterns, finding the latest and greatest in fabrics, the hottest sales.  We had the best dressed kids in the preschool!  They had matching nightshirts and sundresses and a zillion bathing suits from when we were on our bathing suit making kick.  Somewhere there is a photo of the two girls taken on Christmas Eve wearing their matching polar fleece capes and singing Christmas caroles.  Maybe they were about 5 then.

But then my friend moved away and our girls grew up and life just keeps moving on.

The funny thing is though, whenever she sends me photos of projects she has made they are either made from fabric I already have in my stash or fabrics that I have lusted after. 

Even after all these years...

Gift Giving: A Turtle Tote

Along the East Coast of Florida, where we live, are many of the beaches that the loggerhead turtles use as nesting gournds.  These enormous turtles crawl out of the sea at night, walk all the way up to the dunes, dig a nest, lay eggs, cover the nest and then head back to the ocean.  When the teeny-tiny hatchlings hatch they somehow (or often not) make their way back down the beach to the water's edge and out into the ocean.  It really is an amazing process and quite something to see.

This miracle of nature also means that our area is full of turtle restaurants and turtle bars and turtle neighborhoods and turtle street names and turtle 5K's, etc., etc. 

A friend and co-worker of mine is really into the turtles and so to thank her for many of the work "extras", I made her a turtle tote.

 

I used lots of jewel tone batiks, which are her colors and remind me of the ocean.

 

Obligatory inside pocket and key hook.

 

My Cleaning; Your Gain

We recently had a big graduation party for my youngest who graduated high school. To accommodate the party, I took apart my whole sewing world.  In the process of putting it back together I have spent hours cleaning, sorting, purging, re-arranging, etc.  Tiring and messy and not much fun but looks great now that it is done.

In the next day or so I will be posting a bunch of patterns and fabrics for anyone who wants them.  All I ask is that you pay postage to ship from my house to yours.

Stay tuned.